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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27783019">hello, i'm not where i'm supposed to be</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellisntthatbad/pseuds/the_algaybra'>the_algaybra (hellisntthatbad)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Selectively Mute Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Tooth-Rotting Fluff, i physically cannot write angst im sorry for little to no backstory</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:08:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,403</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27783019</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellisntthatbad/pseuds/the_algaybra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dream has been mute for years now. Hasn’t said a word. Sometimes a sound, a hum, but never a word. He simply couldn’t after what had happened. And now, years later, he kinda has forgotten how to. </p><p>AU where Dream does show his face but is selectively mute because of *trauma* but bc I cannot write angst to save my life i didnt include the big bad event and this is just fluff. floofy fluff. like kitty belly floof.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clay | Dream &amp; GeorgeNotFound &amp; Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream &amp; GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>511</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>hello, i'm not where i'm supposed to be</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I had the idea under the shower and took an hour to text it to my friends and now after beta-ing it, im posting it. Also watched George and Quackity making rap songs during beta-ing, so maybe that played into how this turned out</p><p>i have never been selectively mute, but in a bad depression mode i researched a bit on so i hope i didn't make any big mistakes, and if so, please tell me so i can correct my mistakes</p><p>and also, we're talking about people's online personas, please don't harass them about this stuff, and if they say they're uncomfortable with fanfictions about them i will take this down </p><p>title is from sober by AJR which is just stuck in my head everytime i say hello</p><p>Italics for text<br/>Underline for text to speech<br/>Bold for ASL</p><p>:))</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Dream has been mute for years now.Hasn’t said a word. Sometimes a sound, a hum, but never a word. He simply couldn’t after what had happened. And now, years later, he kinda has forgotten how to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It affected his streams the most, people simply found screaming funnier than a dude furiously typing only to have a bored, computer generated voice tell his friends to fuck off. It simply didn’t have the same energy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, to be able to communicate faster, he picked up ASL again. He started learning as a kid to talk more to his sister, but over time, they dropped it, since only few people also speak ASL and it lost some of its appeal. Now, he uses it on stream to thank donors and speak to other people who know ASL. It’s a bit impractical to use to talk to his friends when they are looking at their own game or reading out their chat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On stream, he mostly texts his friends on discord or in the game chat. They have elaborated some sort of abbreviations for certain things and get by with it, but everytime someone new joins, they have to explain shit. It gets annoying after  six different people who aren’t even on his team asked him what he means.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dream, Sapnap and George have been playing a manhunt and are now just messing around with villagers. Both Dream and Sapnap ended their streams but George kept his on to “show them something special”. Whatever that may be, it apparently made George nervous and jittery.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, Dream, are you watching my stream?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span class="u">
    <span>Yes</span>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span>”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, watch this: </span>
  <b>I’m colorblind”</b>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>YOU KNOW ASL??? JFNDFSHDYABSF”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I started teaching myself, was it ok?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span class="u">
    <span>George, it's lovely</span>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span>”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know much more though, I wanted to surprise you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span class="u">
    <span>George, marry me, please, right NOW</span>
  </span>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“DREAM!! NOOO!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>George was blushing furiously at this point.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dream doesn’t have a good mic (for what, he doesn’t talk, it would’ve been a waste of money) so he uses discord only for listening to the VCs, they also made extra text channels for him so he can text while the others talk. Reading though the messages from past talks is an entertaining experience (though maybe not something for streams, the fans laugh would both with and at him).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometime around the Dream SMP starting, Dream picked up speech therapy. He kept it secret from his friends other than Sapnap, who sometimes helps him with the pronunciation of Minecraft Lingo (try and explain a middle age therapist that you, in fact, are not interested in gemstones to mine for your church of white supremacists but simply don’t know how to pronounce prime path). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So when he has some words down, he goes to Discord and calls George. The other is streaming at that moment and at first, they fall into their routine of George saying hello and Dream texting  in his text channel while they hunt some Endermen. When they have calmed down a bit and the atmosphere is calmer, Dream leads him to a quiet place with some bees and cows. Just like that time when George tried on colorblind glasses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then Dream calls George on his phone. And takes a deep breath. And another. And then gets out the words he has struggled with for some time now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey George.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And George is completely shellshocked. This is why Dream wanted to do it on stream, to see and rewatch it again and again, he could never grow tired of that face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he says “Hey George” again and again until he’s not stumbling over letters anymore and George is quiet and just gawping at his phone. Then, probably when he realises that Dream is not messing with him, he simply says “Hey Dream” and has the biggest smile on his face and they keep saying Hey to each other until, at some point, George asks him if he knows more words. Dream needs another moment before he can get them out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m still learning.” He stumbles a bit because he hasn’t practised those as much, but it’s a progress he still can be proud of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s okay, do you want me to help you?” George says, still grinning brightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now Dream is back to typing, using his voice is still hard on him, both mentally and physically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Sapnap has been helping me some bit</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Its good hes been knowing me for longer, knew what stuff i couldnt talk abt, that helped a lot”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s good to hear you, good to know I haven’t been talking to an AI all that time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey! You have seen me!</span>
  </em>
<span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And George simply giggles and Dream has to smile and his heart does a little looping.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Over time, Dream talks more and to other people. Tommy had screamed and gave everyone a headache. Tubbo had asked if Dream would like to say hello to his bees (Dream did say hello. It was very wholesome). BadBoyHalo had made him swear to never cuss (too late for that). Technoblade simply had said cool and kept on mining for some diamonds. Wilbur had asked if he could pronounce some weird word that no one knew the meaning of. Overall, it was a fun experience.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But when Dream and George meet at some point, they simply hug for a very long time. Dream just mumbles “Hey George” into George’s shoulder again and again and Georges answers “Hey Dream” again and again. They only part when Sapnap sneezes (very loud and very fake, but don’t tell them that, they really were obnoxiously cute) and they get thrown back into reality and George now also hugs Sapnap, not as long as Dream, but he’s seeing his two best friends for the first time, don’t judge him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When they have to part again, the hug even longer, first as a group, then just one on one. Dream has prepared some words for this moment, said them in his head many times, fewer times on his own, and never to someone else, but now it’s the time to say them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Goodbye George.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sounds like we’re never meeting again. Don’t say Goodbye. Please.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>George’s voice vibrates against his shoulder and it’s a feeling he wants to experience more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And whenever they meet, even when they see each other on a daily basis, they always say Hey first. On some bad days, Dream signs it and George signs it back. They establish a safe ground and Dream decides when he can and wants to talk. When he has a good day, he says Hey several times and grins while doing it and George has no other choice but to grin back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On a very important day neither of them dreamed of having with each other, Dream barely gets a word out out of nervousness. Sapnap, who had watched these idiots dance around each other for years, simply shows Dream a fan compilation of every time he talked on the Dream SMP, it’s about an hour long and it calms him down immensely, because George was always there with him, told the others to shut up, be silent and keep silent so Dream would have time to prepare himself, has supported him throughout his journey and by the time the video is over, Dream is crying again and Sapnap takes away the phone and hugs him until it is time to go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream has said these words many times, not even with the intent they have now, but now they’re stuck in his throat and he can’t get them out and he can’t breath, but then George lays a hand on his cheek and looks him in the eyes with </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> look and whispers, only meant to be heard by dream, “Hey Dream.” He says it multiple times until Dream can breath again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey George.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Those familiar words come out easier. He says them two or three times and then he can breath again and now he can look at the woman dressed in a colorful suit (though, for George, it probably looks only white and yellow and blue, Dream is going to show him the photos later when he can wear his colorblind glasses).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now he can breath and form form words and can push air through his vocal chords and his tongue unties and everything seems a bit lighter, a bit clearer, a bit easier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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